Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Stamen

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

STA'MEN (στήμων). A spun thread (Ov. Her. iii. 76.); consisting of several fibres drawn down from the top of the distaff (colus; deducere stamina colo. Tibull. i. 3. 86.), and twisted together by the thumb (stamina pollice torque. Ov. Met. xii. 475.) and the rotary motion of the spindle (fusus), as it hung in a perpendicular line from the distaff, the upright position suggesting the name. All these particulars are distinctly illustrated by the wood-cut (Stamen/1.1), representing a female spinning, from a Roman bas-relief.

2. The warp or warp threads in an upright loom, at which the weaver stood instead of sitting. (Varro, L. L. v. 113. Ov. Met. vi. 54, 55. 58. Senec. Ep. 90.) They were extended in a perpendicular direction from the warp-beam (insubulum), or from the yoke of the loom (jugum), as exhibited in the annexed figure (Stamen/2.1), representing Circe's loom in the Vatican Virgil; and formed the groundwork into which the threads of the woof (subtemen) were inserted; whence the term is also given to any thing made of thread, as a garment (Claud. in Eutrop. i. 304.); or a fillet round the head. Prop. iv. 9. 52.

3. The strings of a lyre (Ov. Met. xi. 169.); so named from the resemblance which they bore to the warp-threads of an upright loom, as exhibited by the annexed figure (Stamen/3.1) from a painting in the Nasonian sepulchre near Rome.

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  Stamen/1.1
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  Stamen/2.1
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  Stamen/3.1